


Pardon Us, Familial Vices

by TabooMonster123



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Relationship Negotiation, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-07 00:50:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20300728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TabooMonster123/pseuds/TabooMonster123
Summary: Mitsuki wants to, but is wary. Iori is wary, but he wants to: a conversation.Or: Iori and Mitsuki talk about their feelings for each other. It goes about as well as can be expected.





	Pardon Us, Familial Vices

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! This was written for the I7 Flash Bang. My partner, @venuficer, drew some incredible art for this fic, which can be found here: https://twitter.com/venucifer/status/1163180711551098880
> 
> As usual, please read the tags and summary before continuing. This fic is heavier than the other stuff I've written for this ship, so I hope it comes across well. 
> 
> The title is derived from "We pardon familiar vices", a quote by Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
> 
> Enjoy!

Iori loved his brother. He’d struggled to justify it to himself, but it had always been true. Never in a million years did he think it would amount to anything.

“I don’t even know where to start.” Mitsuki’s voice brushed away the quiet space between them.

Iori didn’t know either. “Perhaps we should… express our positions, just to be clear with one another.”

“You just want to hear me confess to you again,” Mitsuki teased.

“Nii-san!”

“Am I wrong?” Iori scowled. “I’m kidding.”

Iori sighed. “I’m more concerned with how inebriated you were last night. I don’t know how much you remember from our conversation.”

“Not much,” Mitsuki admitted. “What’d I say?”

Iori coughed, covering his mouth with a hand. “You spoke at length about your… _ feelings _ toward me and the anxiety they caused you. I promised we would discuss the subject again in the morning when you were more sober.”

Mitsuki wasn’t entirely sobered up; he’d been woken too early, but he wasn’t going to say that. “Were we going to ‘discuss’ your feelings, too?”

“A-ah, well,” Iori looked away.

“This isn’t a one-way street, Iori. This affects both of us. If you’re not ready to talk about this, then—“

“I _ am,_” Iori insisted shakily.

“… You’ve never done this before, have you.”

He nodded, bowing his head and looking up at Mitsuki from under his lashes.

“Did I take your first kiss, too?” Mitsuki asked, quiet.

Iori said nothing. The flush across his cheeks told Mitsuki everything.

Mitsuki swore. “You— I can’t believe I— God, Iori, I’m so sorry,” he said. “You should have been able to share it with someone special, not—“

“But I did.” Iori spoke, determined, “Nii-san, you _ are _ someone special. I care for you. Deeply. In ways that are completely inappropriate and with intentions that are totally out of line, but—“ He stopped, taking a rattling breath to steady himself. “But I feel them anyway. And now I know that you do, too.”

Mitsuki looked down at his lap. “That doesn’t make this right, Iori,” he said, raising a hand to stop Iori from interrupting. “No, listen. However wrong it is for you to have feelings for me, it’s a hundred times worse in the other direction. I’m your older brother; I’m supposed to protect you from stuff like this, not instigate it.” He wiped his eyes hastily. “What I did to you last night was completely unforgivable, Iori.”

“And if I disagree?” Mitsuki looked up to see Iori frowning at him. “Absolutely none of your advances last night were unwelcome, nii-san.”

“I hear you, Iori, but the law—“

“Does not take consensual relationships into account,” Iori interrupted.

“— means that, legally, _ you couldn’t consent _ to what I did to you last night.”

Iori huffed. “Then the law is wrong,” he said, “and ought to be changed.”

Mitsuki shook his head. “Good luck. If that got publicized it would be political suicide.”

“Nii-san…” Iori hesitated. “I have wanted you for so long I can hardly remember when it began. Maybe it’s selfish, but I won’t let go of this unless you outright reject me. And not because of laws or social taboos, but because you truly do not want me.”

Mitsuki was shaken. This was not how this was supposed to go. “Wh-what’s gotten into you today? Just a minute ago you could barely talk to me without stuttering!”

“You were the one who insisted that I be candid with you.”

“Talk! I said ‘talk’ about this!” Mitsuki squawked.

“We have been talking,” Iori said, “and do not appear to have gotten anywhere. So I am asking you, outright: are you interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with me or not?”

Silence.

“I think that’s the boldest I’ve ever seen you be,” Mitsuki said slowly.

Iori dropped his gaze. “Hope is a powerful motivator.”

Mitsuki was torn. On the one hand, he ought to shut this down immediately. The potential repercussions were enormous. However…

Iori would know if he lied. And that’s what he’d have to do, because the honest truth was he did want this. He wanted this so badly. Part of him didn’t care about consequences, didn’t calculate risk versus reward. It only saw the potential: of loving and being loved in return, of holding his brother close like he’d wanted to for months, of being able to choose a partner for himself whom he adored past the point of reason.

So he said the only thing he could.

“We can’t,” Mitsuki whispered. “We’ll get in so much trouble, Mom and Dad would _ kill _ us—“

“Nii-san,” Iori said, distressed. “Will you please just—“

“_ Yes,_ okay? Of course I want this!” Mitsuki was yelling now. “Of course I want to be with you! I’m in love with you!”

That confession slammed into Iori, knocking the breath out of him.

“But that doesn’t _ matter._” Mitsuki plowed on. “We’d be putting ourselves in an incredibly dangerous spot. Myself in particular— don’t you realize what position I’d be in if anyone ever found out?” Iori tried turning his head away, but Mitsuki grabbed him and forced Iori to look at him. “I’d be labeled a monster, blamed for corrupting you and locked up for it. You’d be painted as my victim, shamed for it, and nothing either of us do will ever change any of it. We’d be forced apart, I would end up in prison, and you would never be allowed to see me again. Our lives, and our relationship, even just as brothers, would be over. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Softly, Iori replied, “Of course I understand.” He reached up and gently pulled Mitsuki’s hands off his face, placing them together in his lap. “Do you think I haven’t considered the potential ramifications? Everything that could possibly go wrong has passed through my head at least twice. And I know—“ His voice stuck in his throat. “I know that I cannot decide for you whether the rewards of trying are worth the risks. But I can ask you, please, to consider how much we could have together.”

This time, Mitsuki let the tears fall. “We have been given a gift,” Iori continued. “We are the only ones who could possibly understand what this is, and what it could be. You _ love _ me,” Iori said in awe, pulling their linked hands against his chest. “That feeling— _ this _ feeling— is something to cherish, regardless of its circumstances.” He paused. “Anything we pursue would, of course, have to be mutual. But I believe I’ve made my position on the matter clear.”

“Crystal,” Mitsuki agreed, breathless. “You don’t play fair, you know that, Iori?”

“You weren’t ‘playing fair’ either,” Iori accused. “The threat of incarceration was a bit extreme.”

“Oh it was, was it? You can pay my legal fees then, Iori. Then we’ll see how ‘extreme’ I was being.”

They stared at each other for a moment and then burst into giggles, shoving each other lightly and leaning back in to rest against one another. “I hope I haven’t upset you,” Iori said.

“I’m not upset,” Mitsuki assured him. “Maybe a little annoyed… Mostly I’m just scared.”

“I, too, find myself ill at ease,” Iori agreed.

Mitsuki snorted. “Oh, you do, do you? What happened to my totally honest little brother from just a moment ago?” He laughed at the glower Iori shot him.

“That was necessary for the task at hand,” he said huffily.

Mitsuki laughed again. “You are completely ridiculous.”

His hair tickled against Iori’s cheek. He sighed into it, dropping his head onto his brother’s. “We’ll need rules,” Mitsuki said. “I need to be sure about everything we do before we do it.”

Iori pulled back. “Nii-san?”

“And you’ll need to be open and honest with me, Iori. The moment you don’t like something, you need to tell me.

“You as well,” Iori whispered. “I cannot allow you to drain yourself for my sake.”

Mitsuki smiled. “Together, then?” he asked.

“Together,” Iori agreed.

“Then it’s a promise.” This relationship would be incredibly difficult, for both of them, and the coming challenges loomed in the back of Mitsuki’s mind like a stormcloud. But as he pressed his lips to Iori’s for the second time in his life, he knew that this was also the happiest he’d ever been.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I really enjoyed writing this, though it gave me some trouble at points. I have far more interest in writing this kind of heavier, more intense fare than my other mitsuio fics have portrayed, but I have limited emotional and mental energy, so I haven't been able to up until now. I hope it lived up to my other works!
> 
> Thank you so much to @venucifer on twitter! Your illustration for my fic makes me want to cry every time I see it; all the pain and longing I wanted to pour into my fic just jumps right out of your artwork and fills me with joy.
> 
> Please leave kudos/comments if you liked what you read! See y'all next time~


End file.
